Grayslake: More than Mated: Bears Do It Better (Kindle Worlds Novella) (4 page)

Chapter Five

Misha threw her hands out to push away the crazy bear who was suddenly kissing her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her hands got distracted by the wall of muscle that was his chest. Plus, once the taste of him burst over her tongue, she found herself wanting more.

What the hell was wrong with her?

She was kissing some lunatic, and her bear didn’t want her to stop. If anything, her bear wanted her to get closer to the crazy man, feel more than his chest and taste more than his mouth.

As she deepened their kiss, some small logical part of her that was pushed to the back of her mind screamed, “
What the fuck was in those honey rolls they had fed her? Some sort of aphrodisiac?
”

Misha could feel her sanity slowly start to seep away the more she kissed the man sitting on the tree branch with her. In fact, they were so lost in their kiss, they didn’t hear the branch cracking under their combined weight. No, they were so lost in each other that they didn’t realize something was wrong until they were flying through the air, rushing toward the ground.

Her crazy man let out a roar of surprise as he grabbed her to his chest, letting his body be the barrier between herself and the other branches as they broke under their fall down. When they landed, it was so hard that the air was knocked out of her chest, but Misha couldn’t really complain because the man had taken the brunt of their fall.

She was dazed and confused as she gasped to get oxygen back in her system. Her senses were fuzzy from being overwhelmed then scared shitless. Perhaps that was why she didn’t notice the other bears standing around them while they laid on the ground, or that her aunt was also there, being held back by the older bear who wouldn’t stop checking out her ass as Arina hissed and tried to claw her way to Misha. What did get Misha’s attention was a pair of big booted feet that came directly into her line of sight.

Her crazy man gripped her tighter, and she felt a growl rumble deep in his chest.

Looking up, Misha saw the clan’s Itan staring down at them with surprise in his gaze. The leader’s lips started moving, but all she could hear was a buzzing in her ears.

It wasn’t until the leader’s brother started laughing, the crazy man gripped her even tighter to his chest, her aunt went stock still, and the leader spoke again that the buzzing stopped.

“Woman, can you hear me?” the Itan asked.

Misha gave him a shaky nod, and then he dropped a verbal bomb on her.

“I said, it looks like you found Borys. That’s your cousin you were kissing!”

Ten minutes later, Misha was sitting in the den’s living room, on the lap of her cousin Borys, because the man refused to let her go. Frankly, Misha was starting to think he was a total nutcase. He kept sniffing her neck and calling her “cookie.” The Itan and others had tried their best to get Borys to let her go in the forest, but the large American bear swiped his claws at all of him and refused to let loose his hold.

After listening to her aunt threaten to claw him off her, the Itan had decided to ask Borys to carry Misha inside. Surprisingly, the man had, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her plump ass into the den, not stopping until he sat himself on the couch, with Misha firmly placed on his lap.

Now, here she sat, in shock for two reasons. First, she had found the family she had been so desperately looking for. Secondly, she had been kissing said family!

She was completely horrified to be caught in such a compromising situation. Nevertheless, as angry as her human side was, her bear side was telling her that they should be wiggling on the man’s lap and urging him to kiss her again. What in the world was wrong with her?

It had to be those damn honey rolls! Misha had thought there was no way something made of pure ingredients, with supposedly no artificial whatsoever, could taste that damn good!

She ignored all of the chattering around her and turned her head until she spotted the old sow named Gigi. “You … You heifer! What did you put in those rolls? I want to know this instant. Then you’re going to tell me how to undo whatever it is you’ve done to me and my cousin.”

Gigi was completely taken aback by her outburst.

Misha watched as Keen stepped over to the old woman and hugged her across the shoulders, giving Misha a glare. “There was nothing in those honey rolls to cause whatever this is going on with you two. You shouldn’t blame poor Gigi. Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining about those honey rolls while you were shoving them down your throat.”

Misha didn’t get a chance to say anything back because her aunt decided it was her turn to say something. Thankfully, that something was in Russian, so the other bears couldn’t understand, which Misha would end up eternally grateful for by the end of her aunt’s rant.

“This, child. This is all of your sweet tooth’s fault! If you had not eaten those evil honey rolls, you would not be putting off whatever magic that old cow put in you to make your own flesh and blood hunt you down like a male in rutting heat. I don’t care what you say, we’re going back to our homeland right now!” Arina’s face was flushed completely red by the end of her tirade, and she was panting in anger.

Misha was mortified that her beloved aunt had seen this happen. She was ready to try and push her way out of Borys’s grip when the old bear who had been holding her aunt back stepped up behind her and gently grabbed her shoulders in his large hands.

Leaning his head down, he spoke right next to her aunt’s ear. “Sweetheart, I have no idea what you just said, but if you’ll say it to me again when we’re alone, naked, and you purring for me, I’ll make your wildest dreams come true.”

Misha didn’t know who was more surprised by the bear’s bold statement, her or Arina. What she did know now was that these American bears were plum crazy, and they needed to get the hell out of here!

What made it that much more frustrating was that her bear absolutely did not want to leave their cousin. What was wrong with her?

Chapter Six

They were trying to take Borys’s cookie from him!

It also didn’t help that his cookie kept trying to wiggle off his lap. Didn’t she realize they were fated mates?

As soon as he could remember how to do more than drool and growl at his Itan, he was going to explain to Ty that this was his fated mate, and then he would take her to his home. There, he could learn what her name was and ask her if she tasted like a cookie all over.

The reason Borys was having a hard time communicating to his Itan now was because his bear was trying to take charge of the situation. His beast wanted to come out and claw the eyes out of any other male who was looking at his mate. It probably didn’t help that Borys’s human side sort of thought the idea had merit, too.

He knew better, though. He couldn’t just let his bear out and claw everyone to death. Not only would that get him banished or killed by the Itan, it might also get his mate in trouble. Therefore, Borys sat there, trying to get his bear to calm the fuck down, which was proving to be just as hard as the cock in his pants. And that was saying something since his cookie kept wiggling around on his lap, trying to get loose, inadvertently teasing him.

Even though he was in a mental fog from trying to keep his bear at bay, Borys could feel his eyes literally rolling back in his head at the pleasure of that wiggle. Good Lord … he would be the first person in shifter history to be killed by a cookie. Take that, Cookie Monster!

Knowing he had to get his shit together so he didn’t appear to be some dumbfounded idiot, Borys started to truly concentrate on pulling himself back together. He told his bear to back the fuck off. When that didn’t work, he bribed the bastard, promising him that he could come out and play with their mate later, after he smoothed everything out.

Just when his bear was starting to grudgingly agree, a feminine voice he knew was not his cookie’s cut through that fog.

“You have death wish, bear. Get your paws off my cub or I will show you how we tigers make bear skin rugs in Russia with nothing but our claws and vodka.”

Cookie tensed in his lap, and Borys tightened his grip on her to make sure she stayed where she belonged. With him.

A round of growls surrounded him as Borys focused his eyes on the woman who had made the threat. When he saw who his opponent was … Well, there was no nice way to put this. He laughed his ass off, which earned him a few comments from the Itan and the others about Borys being totally off his rocker.

He just couldn’t help himself. The woman who had threatened to slice him up was all of five-foot four-inches. Even though she had some considerable curves, there was no way she could hold her own against him. Borys was six-foot-two and two hundred twenty-five pounds. That itty bitty thing was going to turn him into a bear skin rug?

He laughed even harder, so much so that his sides hurt, tears were running down his cheeks, and he was running out of breath. And that was probably why he didn’t see the object that flew through the air and hit him directly in the forehead.

He let out a surprised roar as he released one of his hands from his mate’s waist to rub his poor, abused noggin.

“What in the hell did you go and do that for, you hormonally crazy puss in boots!”

The next thing Borys knew, his cookie had him pinned to the back of the couch with a clawed hand at his throat. Her eyes looked a bit on the crazed side, and she was growling with a ferocity that almost scared him. Or maybe turned him on. Regardless, this was no time for semantics.

“DonotcallmyauntthatagainorIwillgutyoulikeapig.”

Huh? Cookie had been growling so hard that certainly Borys hadn’t heard what he thought he heard.

“Can you say that again, sweetheart? I’m afraid I didn’t understand you around all of the growling.”

The side of her lip curled up in anger as she flashed him a fang, tightening her hold on his neck. Then she leaned closer until they were nose to nose, which was kind of turning him on.

“I said, do not call my aunt that again, or I will gut you like a pig.”

Well, damn, guess he had heard her correctly.

Wrapping his hand around the wrist of the hand she held him by, Borys gave her a nice, polite, “Yes, ma’am.”

His mother had always taught him not to piss of a sow, and if you somehow managed to, then you give them whatever makes them happy until they were no longer homicidal. From the looks of his cookie, that lesson was going to come in handy.

She glared at him with those gorgeous brown eyes, and Borys took the time to study them. They had the sweetest hint of green around the pupil, which somehow made the freckles across her nose seem downright cute with her creamy skin. Add in all that strawberry blonde hair, and yeah, he was a goner. Borys had never seen anyone so beautiful in his whole damn life, which was probably how he found himself stupidly blurting out the next comment without any thought.

“Will you marry me?”

Cookie startled at the question, and the whole room went silent for about a minute. Then those bastards he called clan members were laughing at him hysterically. Traitors, the whole lot of them.

Turning his attention back to his mate who was now straddling his lap, Borys decided to take advantage of her momentary shock and grab her hips with both hands.

She didn’t tell him to get off, but she did snap, “Have you lost your mind?”

Shaking his head, he assured her, “Never been more certain of anything in my life.”

Was that little crinkle she got on the bridge of her nose because she was confused? So fucking cute.

“Why are you certain you want to marry me?” she asked, exasperated.

Damn. Had his little cookie not figured it out yet? Well, Borys would happily fill her in on the happy news.

“Because we’re mates, baby.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but he decided to lay it all out for her, show her how much he wanted her tied to him, lock, stock, and legally binding papers to match mate marks.

“Now, I know our kind doesn’t usually get married, but I don’t want you to just settle for a mate mark. Maybe I can’t put a ring on your hand because it would get in the way of shifting, but I can give you that piece of paper that says you’re legally Mrs. Anderson. What do you say?”

Borys had been expecting overwhelming joy and hugs and kisses of gratitude for him showing the initiative to go that extra mile to make his mate happy.

What he got instead was a slap to the face.

Chapter Seven

“You are craziest man I have ever met!”

It might not have been the best comeback Misha could have come up with, but it was all she could think of right now. Perhaps looking for her biological family had been a very bad idea. So far, all she could see was that her cousin was nuttier than a peanut factory. The man thought they were mates!

Regardless if she had been the one to come looking for him, all of this debacle going on right now was his fault. His scent was driving her to distraction! It was taking all of her willpower not to bury her nose into the side of his neck and sniff away as if she were some sort of crack addict.

Borys smelled like a summer day. All warmth, sunshine, and lazy afternoon desire. It was ridiculous! Who in the hell could smell like an afternoon of seductive desire? She must have hit her head harder than she originally thought in that fall out of the tree. That had to be the only logical explanation for feeling the way she was and having these ridiculous urges, right?

Misha also refused to allow herself to analyze her own confusing feelings. Like the one she had when she wanted to curl up on his lap and cuddle. Or how that kiss in the tree had been the best kiss in her entire life. Nope! Not thinking about that at all.

Instead, she decided to slap him again. Except, this time he caught her hand before it could land on his face.

“Why in the hell do you keep hitting me, woman?”

At this point, Misha was so confused and angry she thought her head might explode. “Because you said you want to get mated and married, you idiot!”

The big, sexy bear that she was still trying to tell her hormones they couldn’t be attracted to only shrugged his shoulders. “Yep.”

His one worded answer had her head spinning with the feeling of insanity. “We can’t get married, you buffoon.”

Now he was the one who looked angry and confused as he demanded, “Why the hell not?”

The last bit of her sanity slipped away as she grabbed her cousin’s shirt collar, went nose to nose with him again, and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Because we’re cousins, you idiot!”

Borys shook his head as if he were trying to clear away his mental cobwebs. “Say what?”

Misha shook him. “Your mother, she is Marianna Wisniewski?” When Borys nodded his head silently, Misha continued, “My mother was her sister, Hanna Wisniewski. That makes us cousins, you imbecile.”

The infuriating man cocked his head to the side and started speaking to her slowly as if she were the one who was nuts. “So, let me get this straight, cookie.”

“
Cookie
?”

Putting a finger over her lips, he stopped her. “Shh, let me talk. Now, back to what I was about to say. Your mother is Hanna, my mother is Marianna, and because of that, you think we’re cousins?”

Misha didn’t a get a chance to tell him that she thought he was slower in the mental department than a snail running a marathon. As usual, her aunt jumped right in.

“Please tell me not all American bears are this stupid. If they are, afraid, I am, that you all will die out quickly. Faster than dinosaur even.”

The derogatory comment earned her a few glares and growls from the other bears still standing audience to her soap opera spectacle. Misha didn’t worry about any of them hurting her aunt, though, because one glance at the man still holding Arina from behind let Misha know her aunt was about to have her own crazy bear troubles soon. The man was giving a killing glare to every single bear who was silently snarling the tigress’s way.

She turned her attention back to the man who had a ridiculous grin on his face.

“Why are you smiling?” she snapped.

“Because I know something you don’t know.”

Misha snarled at the childlike comment. “What do you think you know, stupid bear?”

Borys’s grin only got bigger as he told her, “We’re not cousins.”

Suddenly, her stomach dropped and a wave of despair crashed over her.

Misha might have been confused as hell at everything she was feeling toward the crazy American bear, but she had still been elated to find her family. Now Borys was sitting here, telling her she was wrong.

“Is your mother not Marianna Wisniewski?” she asked in confusion.

“Yep, she’s my mother.”

Misha’s eyes almost went cross-eyed at this back and forth. Were all bears like this? If they were, she might be the one to drag Aunt Arina back to Russia. Dealing with her feline family was so much easier.

“If Marianna is your mother, then how are you not my cousin, then?”

The big oaf shrugged again. “Easy. I was adopted, darling. I’m not Marianna’s biological son, but she’s the only mother I’ve ever known. Since matings don’t count as legal paperwork, and Marianna and my father were only mated and never legally married, we’re not cousins by blood or law.”

It felt like someone had taken the wind out of her sails. Misha must have been in some sort of shock because she wasn’t mad anymore, but she was darn confused. Borys was her cousin, and yet, he wasn’t. Now with the thought that she might be related to him off the table, all of a sudden, her bear was surging forward, wanting out, roaring that this man was their mate. The sensation sort of felt like the time one of her uncles tried to teach her how to box and accidentally knocked her out with a left hook. She was stunned and her head was starting to throb from all of the information that turned out to be misinformation.

“Cookie?”

There he was, calling her that weird name again.

“What?”

“I asked you if you were okay, cookie.”

“Why do you keep calling me
cookie
? My name is not cookie. It is Misha.”

Borys leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Because you smell as sweet as a cookie, sweetheart. Later, I’m hoping to find out if you taste just as sweet.”

The infuriating man leaned back as she gasped, her aunt snorted in disdain, and a few of the other bears chuckled. He might have whispered that, but in a room full of shifters with enhanced senses, most of them had still heard.

“Only you, little bear …” Arina sighed as she sat down on the couch next to her and Borys. “Only you can go to different country, find family yet not find family, and end up with a mate instead. I think this is what these Americans call ‘fuck of a cluster’.”

Borys laughed at Arina’s comment then corrected her, “It’s clusterfuck.” Holding his hand out to Arina, he introduced himself. “Hi, there. Looks like we’re going to be kin. I’m Borys. What’s your name?”

Running a hand over her hair, fluffing it as only a feline could, her aunt said, “Arina Vasiliev. Now get my cub off your lap. Mated not, you are yet, and until you are, you will remember my Misha is a good girl.”